Premature death: statistics reveal the best and worst places to live in England

According to recent statistics from 2010 to 2030 in the UK there is expected to be a 50% increase in people aged 65 and over, and a doubling of people aged 85 or older.

Better lifestyles and healthcare play an important part in improving life expectancy, as does a number of socio-economic indicators.

A combination of education, income and occupation permits people to live longer and healthier lives, but so does where you reside.

We’ve all seen the ‘best places to live lists’ in Great Britain. Recently The Halifax indicated the borough of Waverley as one of the top places to live, also thanks the above average health and life expectancy that it offers - the average life expectancy for a man in Waverley is almost 81 years, which is above the national average.

Life expectancy in the UK has increased by 4.2 years from 1990 to 2010, to 79.9 years.

However, Public Health England (PHE) through their Longer Lives Project is reporting that children born today in the UK still have a one in three chance of dying before they reach 75, due to health inequalities, that can lead to premature mortality.

The four most common causes of mortality in England are heart disease and stroke, lung disease, liver disease, and cancer.

According to a recent study that was published in The Lancet, findings indicated that the UK had a worse record of premature death from these diseases, than many comparable countries and has dropped to 14th, with only five countries showing worse figures.

According to the Longer Lives Project, from 2009 to 2011 there were 456,342 premature deaths (before the age of 75) overall in the 150 local authorities they studied, indicating which authorities had the highest and lowest death rate based on the above diseases.

The city that had the lowest mortality rate was Wokingham, while Manchester had the very dubious honor of being the highest for premature deaths related to cancer and heart disease and stroke, and the second highest for lung and liver disease, while Blackpool was indicated as the second highest for premature mortality.